One of the principal duties of any government is to defend the constitution of the nation. It is a primordial obligation. In taking up office, President Biya has gone before parliament, on more than three occasions, swearing to defend the constitution of the Republic of Cameroon, pleading to the Lord to help him to do so. Philemon Yang as prime minister, head of government does not take an oath to protect the constitution, but in his peak official capacity, it behooves on him to defend the constitution to the last drip of his blood, if he is a patriot.

At a recent question and answer session in parliament, Yang was asked by Hon. Awudu Mbaya why some members of government and those ranking as such, in their droves, still occupy dual functions in violation of the constitution when millions wallow in unemployment.

Yang exacerbated the conscience of patriotic Cameroonians when he replied that “from the legal point of view, it is possible for an official to hold two or more posts provided they are not incompatible.” As prime minister and with the legal angle he took to answer the question, Yang cannot say he is not well versed with the constitution.

If he is not, The Guardian Post refers him to Article 13 of the 1996 constitution which stipulates that: “The office of member of government and any other ranking as such shall be incompatible with that of member of parliament, chairman of the executive assembly of a local or regional authority, leader of a national professional association or with any other employment or professional activity”. From the head of government’s understanding of that provision, would he say it is “not incompatible” for a minister or senator to be chairman of a government enterprise?

What is the relevance of the logic of Yang’s “not incompatibility” when an official holds a key post in the executive branch and another top position in the legislative realm? Wouldn’t that be seen as a flaunting violation of the constitution which forbids such officials from holding two or more positions?

Let’s take just the case of the “pampered boy” of the Biya regime, Peter Mafany Musonge, appointed by President Biya as senator. He is top official in the legislature being the chief whip of the CPDM in the senate. Musonge is also grand chancellor of the National Orders at the presidency, a position that goes with the rank and trappings of minister of state. Would PM Yang, a legal mind and a devout Christian of Etoug Ebe Baptist Church say before God and man, that those posts, one in the legislature and the other in the executive branch are “compatible”?

The president himself is on record to have denounced accumulation of jobs. It reduces output, stretches the holders to the seams of incompetent, and aggravates unemployment and even underemployment which the government is battling to provide solutions to.

Wouldn’t have Yang just parried the question by saying that it was beyond his competence to provide an answer rather than groping to defend the indefensible? Why not even say the multiple office holders will be replaced “ progressively” as in the jargon of the regime?

Because of the tightly-centralized nature of the regime where even a mere director has to be appointed by a presidential decree, “there is no hurry” in Cameroon as the Kenyans say in their tourist industry parlance. Musonge was appointed prime minister when he was still the serving general manager of the CDC, the second largest employer after the state. He held the two very demanding jobs that were incompatible for one and a half years before being replaced at the plantation.

Bernard Foju, special adviser at the prime minister’s office with rank of secretary of state combined the job with that of secretary of the CPDM parliamentary group for over a year. John B. Ndeh held the posts of general manager of MIDENO in Bamenda and that of minister of transport for over two years.

There was the scandalous case of Samuel Minko in the nineties who was general manager of CAMAIR, general manager of REGIFERCAM and mayor of Kribi. In the morning, he worked in the airline company, in the afternoon he took office at the railways and by Friday he was at the Kribi council chambers. The result of such duplication and triplication of office breeds inefficiency, deprives other Cameroonians the opportunity to serve their country and stresses the multiple post holders to a point of malaise. Most importantly, it violates the constitution.

The Guardian Post congratulates Hon. Awudu, a questor on the SDF ticket, for that brilliant question which is truly a way of controlling government action by exposing executive creep and wrongdoing. What is baffling is why the other parliamentarians who represent the interest of the people rather than that of the executive did not grill the prime minister further for what many consider as a gaffe.

Garga Haman, a former Biya regime minister who resigned because of the kid gloves used to fight corruption in a televised interview put the blame for the accumulation of compatible government jobs on the shoulders of President Biya’s collaborators. They fail to draw the attention of the head of state to the provisions of the law which forbids duplication of posts, he said.

The government cannot say it is fighting unemployment especially among young people, and at the same time continues to multiply jobs for retired and tired people while the masses whack in penury.

At The Guardian Post, we hold that there is too much duplication of posts by top government officials in violation of the supreme law of the nation. We urge such office holders, not to be flattered by the frail defense by PM Yang. Like all human beings, they are not indispensable and should not take advantage of the snail pace at which the system functions to keep many jobs that are a disservice to the nation and bring stress to their health at an age they need a good rest.

They should not be so greedy to hang on till death do them part even in violation of the law.